Another crowd under 50,000 possible

Submitted by Anonymous on Thu, 10/25/2007 - 2:44pm

Just before 5 p.m. Thursday, ticket sales for Saturday's Texas Tech game against Colorado stood at 49,140. Not bad, but there wouldn't be 3,660 tickets left at this stage if Texas or Texas A&M were coming to town.

So I ask: Why do Tech fans not get fired up when teams from the Big 12 North come down? There was no row of tents lined up outside Jones Stadium on Monday with kids who couldn't wait to get into the game on Saturday. And remember, on Oct. 6, only 46,558 showed up for the Iowa State game -- homecoming, no less, and that's likely to be the lowest-attended game of the season.

I started to say, maybe it's just that Iowa State and Colorado aren't perceived as outstanding teams. But when a No. 1-ranked Nebraska (remember when you could say 'No. 1-ranked Nebraska'?) came to town in 2000, that was another game that fewer than 50,000 showed up (48,961).

For 25th-ranked Missouri last year, same thing: 49,050.

Again, 49,000 ain't bad. But if the opponent's not a big regional rival, that seems to make the difference for 5,000 or so fans.